Free wi-fi users lounging at Wanaka phone box trip up pedestrians

Wanaka retailer Chris Walsh has asked the Wanaka Community Board to support his bid to move two phone boxes away from a busy street corner and stop free wi-fi users cluttering his shop entrance.

​Not so long ago, an elderly customer tripped over a pavement sitter's leg, hurt herself, and came into the store to complain, Walsh said.

Spark communications manager Michelle Baguley says the Helwick Street phone box is Wanaka's least busy wi-fi station, in terms of data usage, and says moving it would not be simple without a willing landowner to host power and phone lines.

The company has only ever agreed to move one phone box – it was in Auckland – for reasons unrelated to wi-fi use, Baguley said.